We began our day at Cafe Maddison, a French bistro-style cafe. The internal decor was a galaxy apart from the classic American diner we ate breakfast in yesterday. In some ways, it reminded me of the Recoco Lounge at the Odeon Cinema in Aylesbury with the artwork and assorted objects around the walls and the different styles of wall coverings.

The above photo is an alcove you can just see in the first pic.

The lights were down so low it made the mood lighting in Char & Tim’s lounge look like the floodlights in Wembley Stadium, which is why the pics are a bit dim and hard to see. I’ve brightened them as much as I can using AI tools in Google Photos to allow you to see some them a little more clearly.

Tired of ordering our menu item and “holding the eggs” that we’d paid for, we opted for something which was sans eggs. None of these items would feature on an English breakfast menu, but never mind. 

French toast with caramel apples and cinnamon crumble bites

Pumpkin spice pancakes 

Strawberry pancakes

As we were sharing, Char ordered three pancakes. Once she was a few bites in, she wished that she’d stuck to her original plan and only ordered two. At this point, memories of iHOP in Florida came flooding back. In her defence, there doesn’t seem to be a standard size for pancakes, which vary immensely. 

Our first stop was 90 miles away (2hr 30mins) in Springfield, Massachusetts. We parked and strolled (or pushed) along Main Street. Stopping at a financial building we ordered Char a coffee from the coffee shop adjacent to reception and used their facilities on the 3rd floor. There was a baby grand piano in reception, which was poorly tuned but I couldn’t resist tickling the ivories while Char drank the top half of her coffee. 

Outside the financial building where we bought the coffee Char’s holding

This trainer was in the middle of an open space, pretty funky, eh?

Alas, there wasn’t much more to see, mostly due to closed sidewalks and extensive renovations being undertaken. Knowing we had another 85 mile (2hr) drive ahead of us, we didn’t sweat it too much and returned to the car to set sail for Providence. 

Char drove us there and did really a great job in heavy traffic, through a ton of roadworks with lane closures and narrow lanes with massive lorries and other vehicles so close you could almost touch them, and navigated us safely across a six-lane junction. And for the avoidance of doubt, all six lanes were on our side of the road, and were stacked and packed in the height of rush hour. 

Providence is a sprawling city and home to the Dr Seuss Museum, although we didn’t visit it because we only got here at 4:30pm and by the time we’d parked, and found our bearings we’d run out of time. Having said that, we knew we weren’t going to be able to see literally everything in 10 days, because in reality it’s only 5.5 days minus flight time and the days we spent in Canada and around Niagara. 

While we were making our way to the end of the road to see the Rhode Island State House, we spotted an outlet for The Cheesecake Factory. Cheesecakes are another guilty pleasure that we’ve been sharing on this road trip. We only went in “for a look” and came out with two slices bagged to go.  So I guess we’ve got our mid-morning snacks for tomorrow sorted already!

Don’t they look amazing?

The Cheesecake Factory menu

The Rhode Island State House

The Providence skyline. Note the building which looks a bit like The Empire State building with all the different levels, which the locals refer to as “the Superman building” due to it’s similiaity to the building where Clarke Kent is supposed to have worked.

I’m currently sitting in Applebee’s Bar and Grill typing the blog on my phone, just down the road from the Best Western where we’re staying tonight. 

Fun fact, I had a chicken sizzler with cajun shrimp and a garlic and bacon mash with a side of sauteed onion and mushrooms. Sounds awesome, right? I agree. Having discovered earlier today that Char will eat a tuna mayo sandwich but otherwise detests fish, I was curious. It turns out she had a bad experience with primary school lunches and hadn’t touched fish since. Game on, I thought to myself! So when my main arrived I tested half a shrimp to check the smell and flavour first. Not detecting the remotest whiff of fish, I borrowed her fork and offered her the other half which she enjoyed dear reader. I then offered her a taste of the mash which she also dislikes for similar reasons. Begrudgingly she agreed it was “not bad” – aka damning with faint praise. Lol. But at least she tried something new and opened her mind like you’ve been telling her to do,  eh Luke? 

Chicken sizzler with cajun shrimp and a garlic and bacon mash with a side of sauteed onion and mushrooms

Bacon, southern fried chicken and ranch dressing in a bun

Applebee’s sweet chilli chicken in a bun

The decor inside Applebee’s Bar and Grill reminded me a bit of TGI Friday’s

After we left Applebee’s we needed to let Liz stretch her legs, after all that sitting in the back seat of the car so we strolled around Target. Knowing you’re unfamiliar with Target, if you imagine a huge Asda but switch the percentages of food vs non-food around so it’s only 70% food you’re on the right track. Outside Target we saw these pumpkins. Who knew they came in white?

Inside we happened to find ourselves in the candle aisle, and discovered an awesome pumpkin spice candle which smelt exactly like the delicious panckaes we’d enjoyed a few hours before. I joked Char should add it to her collection and Liz agreed, which was shocking and amazing all rolled into one tiny statment. Especially when you consider that Char has a cupboard full of candles at home because they’re her guilty pleasure, which Liz had banned her from buying anymore until she’d burnt through the ones she had after she discovered how many she had. Fun fact, this isn’t likely to happen any time soon dear reader, because it turns out Char likes to sniff the different scents and then return them to the cupboard where they live!